Weblog of The Gate to Greece. Mainly about Athens and Piraeus because I live here and especially about food because I love it.

25 October, 2009

Ta Giouvetsakia @ Plaka, Athens

Last Wednesday was an unusual day for me.

Usually I lead pretty quiet life. Weekdays especially. Go to school in the morning and do some work at home in the afternoon, then wait for Hubby to return at around 9 o'clock. When we finish dining, it is too late to go out, so we remain home until bedtime.

It was different last Wednesday. First, after school, two of my schoolmates took me to school canteen for lunch. Food wasn't nice, but good was the company. Then I went home.

While having a coffee in front of my PC, an ex-language schoolmate of mine invited me for a drink in Athens. I accepted the offer and went out to get a bus.

While I was waiting for a bus, another friend of mine from UK asked me if it was ok to meet in the evening. I remembered vaguely that there was that appointment, but not having heard from him until that very day, I took it for cancelled (he was visiting Greece only for a week for work staying in Athens only for some days, so it seemed probable to me that he would run out of time). Luckily, the time he suggested was quite late, so I could make for both meet-ups.

Then, while the ex-schoolmate and I were walking around looking for where to settle, we met another ex-school friend of ours just by chance!

Now that I think, the whole last week was unusual. Monday I met another person for a coffee and Thursday as well. Friday with another person for dinner.

It must have been a chance, but I cannot help but thinking if all these have any hidden meaning.

Personal matters aside, now I have to write about this restaurant Ta Giouvetsakia. I did not took any photo this time and the one below was taken last year.

This is the retaurant I went with the friend from UK I mentioned above. There joined another friend who lives now in Greece but I first met in UK. This restaurant was suggested by the English friend who has been here several times in the past.

We ordered three mezedakia, three main dishes and one salad. The mezedakia = orektika were fava, tyrokafteri and boiled beetroot. The main dishes were fried gavros (anchovies), beef with aubergine, and baked chicken and fried potatoes. The salad was shredded cabbage and carrot. We had also a half kilo of house wine.

Let's go more into the detail. The orektika dishes were all fine. Tyrokafteri looked suspiciously white - not cheesy white, but snow white - but on tasting it, it was quite acceptable with nice kick of green fresh chili. Mashed fava (=yellow split peas) was decorated with chopped fresh red onion and olive oil. Never having eaten fava in this way (but this is the commonest way of eating fava in Greece), I could not compare, but I liked it. Boiled beetroot was again fine: very sweet with only slight earthiness.

Among the main dishes, the one looked the best was the beef with aubergine. It came in small youvetsi earthen ware. Judging from the name of the restaurant, the dishes cooked in youvetsi are their specialities. The other main dishes and the salad were also ok.

After the meal, we were offered semolina halvas for free.

The total bill for 7 dishes and 1/2 litre of wine came to just below 50 euros (I cannot give you the break-down, as our server never returned us the receipt). For the central Plaka, the price looked fair. I won't go back there with Hubby, but if I need to take foreign visitors to Plaka, this place is an acceptable choice.